David Vector | The Official Website of David Vector | Bloghttp://davidvector.com/blog
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 00:00:00 -0800"Sunshine in the Shade"http://davidvector.com/blog/sunshine_in_the_shade
Hello again!

Here we are into another new year, and I'm still recording away. I know, I was saying two years ago that I was wrapping things up (so I thought!). The last couple of years have been quite a shakeup in terms of musical direction and focus. I drifted away from the piano-based music I had been doing for a while back towards electronica. And then, for a few months, I found myself fired up about recording conceptual rock music again. I don't consider the latter to have been a wasted errand, though - some good things came from it and that music will still likely come out at some point in the form of a separate EP. In the present, though, I've locked back into more electronic music. Well, my own brand of it, at any rate, which is definitely not fashionable club music. I guess even when I do electronic music, you can tell I have roots in progressive/conceptual rock. I wonder what you'd even call my variant - conceptual electronica?

I transitioned back last month when I decided to spend a couple of days reworking/remixing an electronic piece I'd recorded a year ago. It really got me eager to delve deeper back into synths again. Scott and I had just binge watched an FX series called Legion (basically an X-Men spin-off - I'm a real sucker for anything X-Men). I was intrigued by the idea of the main character being essentially "possessed" and manipulated by a foreign entity he didn't even realize was there. And of course, "Lenny" cut such a memorable figure as the more palatable projected face of the actual enemy. So I decided to write a song about her/him/it. My lyrical ideas often come from weird places and this is definitely one of the weirdest. So a few weeks later, we have "The King of Shade," which is equal parts sinister and sort of twistedly happy, rather like Lenny herself. A preview of the first half of the song is now loaded in the LISTEN widget thingie - hope you enjoy!

I have 8 or 9 songs ready to go that fit into the context of a more electronic-oriented album, so I'm pretty far along down that road. A release by late summer this year isn't at all unrealistic now, barring unforeseen complications.

Oh, speaking of Shadow Kings (or in this case, Shadow Queens), there's my mascot and newest addition to the family hanging in the recording space. Shadow joined the family last June when she was just a 6-week-old little puppy, and now she's all grown up. She's sure livened things up around here. Equal parts holy terror and cuddly angel and clearly thinks she runs the house (which isn't entirely untrue).

Well, that's the news for now. Hope this finds everyone doing well and making good things happen in the new year. Catch up again soon!

As another summer draws to its close, I'm still working away at new material, but getting closer to a finished album. One big hurdle I've gotten over is completing that 12-minute bear of a conceptual rock piece, the first of its kind that I've attempted in over twenty years. It ended up having three "movements," so to speak, each with its own themes, before finally revisiting parts from the first section at the end to tie it all together. Tons of guitar tracks, keyboard tracks, all sorts of percussion had to be stitched together. And then there was the frustration of tracking the entire bass part on a fretless bass I hadn't done much recording with previously - only to find, when I went to do the mix, that the recorded bass sound was not working at all (requiring me to re-track the entire 12-minute piece with a different bass - argh!). The first 1/3 of the new piece, "Chasing Fire," is now loaded in the audio player for you to preview.

With that one all wrapped up at last, I'm in the early stages of putting the next piece together. I enjoyed breaking away from shorter, more traditional song form on "Chasing Fire" and think I may go a bit that way with this new one as well (though I don't expect to get quite as long-winded on this next one!).

I'm being called to dinner, so I'll keep it short this time. Hope you've all been doing well and we'll talk again soon!

DV

]]>http://davidvector.com/blog/chasing_fire_hopefully_catching_some_sparksWed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 -0700David Vector | The Official Website of David Vector | BlogPulling It All Back Togetherhttp://davidvector.com/blog/pulling_it_all_back_together
Hello there!

Summer has almost arrived, even though it doesn't entirely feel like it on a wet, chilly morning like this. By this time, I am most assuredly late in terms of where I had expected things to be by now. One good thing about being an indie artist, though, is that you have no record label breathing down your neck about delivering an album - if you feel you need more time to sort things out, you take the time.

The last couple of months, I suddenly found myself wanting to do some more rock-oriented music with a fair bit of guitar on it again. So I did, figuring I would resurrect the "Project Vector" handle and split that music off into a separate thing. As soon as I did that, however, I realized that trying to maintain TWO musical identities is a pain in the backside for me and does nothing but confuse my listeners. A friend had suggested to me more than once that there's no reason I can't just present a stylistic variety under one name and on one album. Anyone who has listened to my various noise over the last decade knows I've been all over the map stylistically, so they're probably already used to it. So that's what I've decided to do...take the tracks I like best from both "projects" and merge them into one new album released as David Vector. I'm going to go back into a few of the piano-driven tracks and work some guitar into them so there's a little bit more cohesiveness going on, and I think it'll be fine. A tad weird, maybe, but fine.

Now loaded in the audio player is a sample from a brand-new track called "Apathetic Superhero." As noted, this one is a little heavier and leaning more towards "progressive rock" (whatever that means in 2016) than what I had been doing for the last couple of years, but it's another side of my musical personality that I no longer feel the need to split off into a separate compartment.

That's the news for now. My brain is tired after sorting all this out and I need more coffee. Talk soon!

DV

]]>http://davidvector.com/blog/pulling_it_all_back_togetherThu, 16 Jun 2016 00:00:00 -0700David Vector | The Official Website of David Vector | BlogStill Recording, but I'm on the Home Stretch (honest!)http://davidvector.com/blog/still_recording_but_im_on_the_home_stretch_honest
Hiya gang! A belated Happy 2016 to all of you!

Yep, that's me still recording in the pic. When that was taken last week, I was mixing another new song called "The Devil's Camera," a small snippet of which is now in the site's audio player. I was supposed to be all done recording songs for this album by now, but I'm still at it. Basically, what happened is that I missed my window to get the album done and released before the holidays hit last year. So, as I tend to do, I got restless...and started writing and recording another song. And then another one.

I know, I know...if I don't cut myself off, I'll never get a new album out, eh? Don't worry, even I'm about to lose patience with myself! I'm going to let myself keep chasing the muse long enough to get one more additional song (maybe two, MAX) put together and that's it. At that point, what I have is what I have, and in the spring, it's time to stop teasing and put out (d'oh!).

Of course, somewhere in the midst of that, I also have a half-done video that I need to finish shooting and try to edit into something coherent. And album graphics to design. (I'm surprised I can even keep my head upright with all the different hats I'm wearing!)

That's the news, and the weather is...snowy. I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere today. Guess I'll put on a fresh pot of coffee and go bang on the pie-anner and plunk on that bass gee-tar...

I hope you've all had a great summer (well, TWO of them since I last posted here!). It's been way too long since I wrote an update, so let's get caught up.

I'm in the later stages with the new album, at the point of polishing up some previously recorded tracks and contemplating whether I want to "do just one more," as always. I had hoped to get the new album out before the end of the year, but things often seem to take longer than I expect. With the holidays almost upon us (and December not being a really good month to release a new album), it looks like it's going to be first quarter of 2016.

In the meantime, I'm shooting footage for a video to coincide with the album release. This one is going to be a definite step up from my past attempts at videos, being shot in 2.7K so it will look good in 1080p HD. I'm hoping to have the video wrapped up within the next month, so I can focus on other things for the remainder of the year, like tweaking the recorded material and designing album graphics.

That's the news for now. Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday season surrounded by family and friends. I'll talk to you soon!

DV

]]>http://davidvector.com/blog/a_long_overdue_updateFri, 06 Nov 2015 00:00:00 -0800David Vector | The Official Website of David Vector | BlogWelcome to the New Website!http://davidvector.com/blog/welcome_to_the_new_website
Hello there, and welcome to my new online digs! Help yourself to a cup of java or a glass of wine, sprawl out on on the couch, put your feet up on the coffee table, make yourself at home!

Getting a new, more modern website online with a new host was long overdue. I had used my previous hosting service since 2002, but they slacked off on updating their increasingly antiquated web design software and my site wasn't even displaying properly in some current browsers any longer. So, as we did physically a year and a half ago, it was time for me to move to a new online neighborhood as well. My new host makes it much easier to put a site together that should look good in all the major browsers and work with mobile devices too, as well as handling my blog and mailing list. The latter has to be started from scratch, since my old hosting company managed to lose my entire opt-in mailing list, by the way! So if you were subscribed before or would like to be, please take a moment to show that signup box to the right some love.

To kick off the new site, I've put up short previews from a couple of new songs, "Atmospheric Disturbance" and "Small Town Sky." Those who haven't heard any previews of what I've been up to since releasing Go several years ago may be a little surprised by the more organic, piano/bass/drums-driven sound after the more produced and electronics-heavy sound of my last two releases. I went through a lot of phases since 2007 and was flailing around for direction for a while, but this seems to be what I've finally settled on (at least for this project). It's somewhat reminiscent of the first album I ever recorded back in 1994 (there may be a few copies of that cassette floating around out there) in terms of having a lot of piano and fairly aggressive bass playing, as well as leaning a bit more on traditional songwriting and a bit less on elaborate production. Not that I've lost interest in electronic sounds, mind you - there will still be plenty of synthesizers on the new album - the focus is just a little different this time. As always, some will like it, some will hate it, and some will be indifferent, but I can't control that - all I can do is do what I'm fired up about doing at the moment and put it out there!

I don't know what the title of the next album will be yet, though there are some common threads running through the lyrics that are suggesting possibilities. I do have what I think could likely be the flagship song on the new album "in the can" already, but of course I won't let that one out of the bag until a video has been shot and the album release is imminent, so as not to dilute its impact.

Anyway, I'm really glad you stopped by the new house. Come back anytime - the door's always unlocked and the porch light is always on. Drop me a line on the Contact page...always great to hear from you!